“Visions of
Kish Church, one
of the oldest churches in the Caucasus
By Dr G. Mammadova and PhD
In the year 2000 Norwegian
explorer and scientist Thor Heyerdahl gave his blessing to the study,
restoration and conrsion to a museum of the ancient
The project
consisted of four stages; the first (begun in June 2000) was devoted to a study
of the architectural and arshaeological aspects of
the church. Excavations were conducted both inside the church and in its
grounds by scientists from the Institute of Ethnology and Archaeology (a
department of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan), led by Dr Karimov and Norwegian and British archaeologists, Bjornar and Suseela Storfjell. They not only found interesting artifacts, including
ceramics and bronze and gold ornaments, but also evidence, including graves, of
this location having been used as a religious centre for centuries.
Perhaps the most
interesting discovery was that of a grave vault under the floor at the western
end of the church. The excavations and archaeological exploration of the
monument's foundations provided evidence for the dating of the present
building's walls (5th century). At the same time theories of an even older
first century church building were confirmed by remains of foundations and
walls in layer after layer under the present walls. In this way archaeological
exploration confirmed the literary tradition that the church in the village of
Kish is the ancient church in the Caucasus referred to in the History of
Albanians (by medieval historian Moses Kalankatuykskiy)
as the first Albanian church, founded by the Apostle St Eliseus
in the
In the autumn of
2002 the second stage of the project, planning the restoration of the building
on the basis of the architectural and archaeological investigations, was instigated
by Professor G. Mammadova and assistant professors T.
Abdullayev and S. Hajiyeva.
Their aim was to keep as close as possible to the historical character of the
building, paying careful attention to numerous additions and reconstructions
through the centuries, whilst removing elements added in the 19th century which
would be a misrepresentation of the building up to that time. The architects
wanted to shed more light on the great variety and historical value of the
structural features without confusing the onlooker.
In June 2001 the
third stage of the project - restoration - was started under the auspices of
the Sheki branch (headed by Sh.
Mammedov) of the Ministry of Culture's Restoration
Department. This stage was completed by the end of 2002 and involved the
removal of 19th century additions which detracted from the character of the
building. In addition, the foundations around the entire perimeter were
reinforced and facing stones were removed from the northern wall and from parts
of the other walls for them to be strengthened. Inside the church layers of
plaster from more recent times were removed and the walls and roof cleaned. The
chancel was relieved
of its 19th century elements and its floor lowered to the level of the Middle Ages and the roof and dome tiling was given a
protective covering. The process of archaeological excavation is demonstrated
by an observation slit above the grave and trenches showing the layers under
the chancel as well as ancient graves outside in the churchyard.
The fourth stage
of the project was to turn the church into a museum. The instigators of the
project wanted to make